TELUK INTAN, June 22 — Perak recorded investments of RM1.43 billion for the January to March period this year compared with RM249.8 million in the same period last year.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said according to statistics from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) released recently, the investments comprised RM849 million in foreign direct investment and domestic investment amounting to RM585.1 million.
“Perak occupies fifth place (total investment value) after Penang, Kedah, Johor and Selangor, and this has shown that foreign and domestic investors have confidence in the political stability in the state as they have the courage to come here with huge investments.
“We (state government) must work harder to attract as much investments as possible to the state and InsyaAllah (God willing) we can compete (total investment) with Penang, Kedah or even Selangor,” he said.
He was met by reporters at the Aidilfitri celebration organised by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Pasir Salak division which was also attended by the division Bersatu chief Datuk Zainol Fadzi Paharuddin at the community service centre of Sungai Manik state legislative assembly here, today.
Elaborating further, Ahmad Faizal said prior to this, it was difficult for the investors to get the opportunities to invest in the state due to land ownership issues to build factory on the site proposed by the state government because of exploitation and illegal land exploration activities.
Following this, he said the state government had formed a special committee to resolve this problem.
“Exploitation and illegal land exploration which have been happening since decades ago is the reason why investors cannot come in to invest immediately in the state.
“This is because the investors are ready to invest by opening factories, however they found that the land has illegal settlers and it takes some time to resolve this issue,” he added.
Ahmad Faizal is confident if the exploitation and illegal exploration activities is fully resolved, then the state would be able to draw more investments. — Bernama
